1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method.
2. Related Art
There is known a printing apparatus in which printing is performed using a liquid (for example, UV ink) which is cured by the irradiation of light (a kind of electromagnetic wave, for example, ultraviolet light (UV)). In such a printing apparatus, the liquid is ejected onto a medium from the nozzle of a head, and then, the light is emitted to dots formed on the medium. In this way, the dots are cured and fixed on the medium, and thus, it is possible to perform reliable printing even with respect to a medium on which the liquid is difficult to be absorbed. (For example, refer to JP-A-2000-158793.)
Further, as the above described printing apparatus, there has been proposed a printing apparatus in which two-stage curing is performed. For example, as light having low irradiation energy is emitted to dots right after being formed, blurring between inks or diffusion of the dots is restricted (pre-curing). Thereafter, light having a large amount of energy is emitted to the pre-cured dots. Thus, the dots are completely cured (main-curing).
In such a printing apparatus, color dots are formed by ejecting color inks onto a medium, and then, the pre-curing and the main-curing are performed.
In this respect, for example, a surface of an image (color dots after being pre-cured) on the medium may be coated with clear ink during the time after the pre-curing of the color dots and until the main-curing thereof. However, in a case where the coating is performed in this way, there is such a problem that the image quality of the printed image may be different from a case where the coating is not performed.